


Moonstruck in Montana

by amaltheametalweld



Category: Far Cry 5
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 06:17:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20110501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amaltheametalweld/pseuds/amaltheametalweld
Summary: I just got an idea for a werewolf AU, and this is what I ended up with. My phone is giving out and refusing to charge so I'm posting this even though it isn't as polished as I'd like. Hopefully I'll be able to fix this when I get a new phone!





	Moonstruck in Montana

John's attention was straying from the sermon again. The beautiful redhead had returned for the second Sunday in a row and she managed to snag a seat a lot closer to the front today. He could practically make out the individual freckles on her face and shoulders from his position near the stage. The pale blue dress was almost frustratingly modest, and John was imagining how she would look draped in expensive silk when she looked up from her copy of Joseph's book right at him.

\---

Mina was startled to see the Baptist fixated on her. Flustered she looked up at the Father who was still speaking. She almost convinced herself she had overreacted, but glancing back at the preacher's brother, he was still watching her. This time she met his eyes he smirked back like a cat that cleared out a whole cage full of canaries. 

She blushed and tried desperately to focus on the images of hellfire and sorrow that the Father was describing as the punishment for those sinners who would be caught outside of Eden's Gate. Almost against her will her mind instead painted those predatory blue eyes and that devilish smile. If Satan ever took the form of a man, Mina was entirely sure he would be modeled after the sin inducing John Seed. She decided to look anywhere but at him, and just make an embarrassed dash for the door as soon as service ended.

\---

John was enjoying the deep shade of pink that creeping across her cheeks and the clear trouble she was having not looking his way a third time. He didn't however enjoy the looks she threw over her shoulder to the door. If she bolted there was no guarantee that she would be back, and that was a risk he was not willing to take.

The closing prayer gave him the cover he needed to beat Mina to the building's only exit. All he had to do was wait for her to come to him.

\---

After everyone was dismissed, Mina stood up intending to rush to the door, but found her way blocked by the rest of the congregation slowly filtering out. One of the hazards of sitting in the front rows was getting stuck waiting on those behind. Silently cursing she risked looking back for John, only to realize he was gone. 

"Have you lost someone, my child?" she felt a hand fall on her shoulder, and turned around to see Joseph Seed himself smiling at her.

"Oh, no I was just noticing size of the crowd today. I guess it's a good thing I got here early enough to get a good seat." She really wished that she had thought of a better excuse, and prayed that he hadn't noticed his brother's blatant staring as he had paced around the pulpit.

"Yes, the Lord has multiplied our attendance recently. Speaking of which, I don't believe I've seen you here before Sister…?" 

"Mina Balfry," she answered his unfinished question, "this is only my second visit to your church." 

"And have you considered joining us here at the Project, Sister Mina?" The hand returned to her shoulder. As the crowd in front of them thinned, he used it to guide her gently towards the door as they spoke.

"No. I'm still not sure about all this end of the world stuff or where it's all coming from to be honest." He stopped walking and reached across her to the bench closest to them. When he straightened back up, he pressed a white leather book into her hands.

"This is where it's coming from, the Word given to me by the Voice of God." his eyes held an almost frightening intensity. " I want you to read that. Open your heart and see, really see what's written there," his free hand went dramatically from his own chest to the book she held, "and when you come back next week I would like to take some time to speak with you about it after the service." They approached the door where John was greeting the faithful as they left. She almost regretted the small spark of glee she felt watching his careful smile failing ever so briefly upon seeing the two of them. "Would you be open to having lunch with myself and my family next Sunday?"

\---

The Father's hand finally released her shoulder and settled on his brother's as if to emphasize that he would be attending this family lunch. John realized immediately that he had been way too obvious in his actions, and was forced to watch helplessly as Mina smiled and generously agreed to attend this event before heading out to her car. Joseph was planning this get together to punish him for lusting over her in front of the whole church, he just knew it. He envied her oblivious innocence to Joe's true nature, and tried to think of ways to derail the meal without causing suspicion from the lady or the Father. 

___

It had been a total mistake to return to the Eden's Gate church. Now she had a book to read and some kind of religious luncheon where the prophet was going to quiz her about God while his brother smoldered at her like the cover of a romance novel. She didn't drink, but boy was today a tempting day to start. 

John had in the span of an hour and a half gotten her contemplating both filthy sex and binging hard liquor. She had also lied to a preacher. He was definitely the devil in the flesh, and had no business in a church. She wondered how he managed it without bursting into flames or being struck by lightning. Maybe she should watch out too now that she thought of it. 

___

Mina and her roommate Eris had taken what was left of the day to go for a hike. The woods behind their house led to a series of trails that zigzagged all the way up into the mountains, if you followed them far enough and didn't mind fording a few small rivers. They didn't plan on going out that far, but the weather was perfect and the Montana wilds were especially beautiful now that summer was finally here.

"Do you want to head up to that waterfall we found last week or do you want to try to go somewhere new?" Mina asked as they got to a familiar fork in the path.

"The waterfall would be a gorgeous spot to stop for dinner." The girls headed left and Eris continued, "We could set up camp near that overhanging rock further down the trail. It would block out a lot of this wind," she said with her dark ponytail swaying in the breeze.

"Awesome, idea. It is going to be late by the time we finish eating." 

___

It took the women longer than they had originally planned to reach the waterfall. Night had begun to fall and they decided to press on past it to make camp. 

"I guess we started out later than we did last time." Mina was irritated with herself for the miscalculation because it meant postponing her favorite part of camping, the food. 

"It just means we get to eat by the fire under the stars." Eris knew her friend well, and always found the bright side to cheer everyone up.

"How romantic, dinner by moonlight!" Both of them laughed at that and they continued down the trail in a brighter mood.

___

Pitching their tent was a ten minute routine for Eris. Building the fire was Mina's job which took a little longer because she had to find the wood by flashlight. 

Stepping out of the rocky camp area towards the trees she thought she saw the shine of a pair of eyes in the distance, but it whatever it was disappeared before she could be sure. She scanned the treeline with her flashlight and unbuttoned the holster for her pistol. 

"Hey Ris! Come help me with this!" she knew getting the fire going would help keep wild animals away, but hell if she was going to look for kindling alone now.

"Picking up sticks is suddenly too hard?" her friend mocked.

"I saw something in the woods. It had red scary eyes and I'm not getting eaten like some dumbass in a horror movie! -- Please?" 

"Sounds fake, but okay." Eris relented and they only heard a few freaky nature noises like snapping twigs and rustling while they searched through the brush. Heading back to camp with their haul Mina set about her previous task as swiftly as possible while Eris rolled her eyes at her friend's dramatics.

They soon had a crackling fire and while they waited for the initial heat to die down so they could cook, Mina broke out the marshmallows. There was just something so satisfying about catching the puffs on fire and watching the color bloom across the brilliant white that she couldn't get enough of, plus they were incredibly delicious with chocolate and graham crackers. 

In fact by the time Eris had begun to cook their main course, Mina had forgotten all about the eyes in the forest. The teasing and chatting eventually came around to the events earlier at the church. And Mina got the opportunity to entertain her companion with her juicy gossip about John effing Seed staring her down in front of God and everybody, leading up to being manhandled by "the Father", and her family lunch engagement where she was half sure a book report was due. 

Eris couldn't hold in her glee, "Maybe we could fake your death or at least a sudden terrible illness!" Tears were streaming down her face she was laughing so hard.

"You know I can't get away with anything! I'm the worst lier in the free word. There isn't a witness protection plan secure enough to contain my ineptitude for deceit."

"You just told me you lied this morning!"

"I'm pretty sure he saw right through me and figured I needed an extra helping of Jesus. The man practically pulled me aside and asked to speak to me after class. That's never a good sign!" This caused a fresh fit of giggles from Eris.

"You're right, plus he's probably going to accuse you of seducing John! You did have those sexy, sexy shoulders hanging out of your dress tempting that poor innocent man." 

"Innocent my foot, he's a lawyer! And you should have seen the way he was looking at me. There isn't an innocent bone in his well dressed body!" 

"That I can believe. Not to ruin your hopes, but your well dressed man is rumored to be a high class fuckboy."

"My hopes? You don't seriously think I'm going in for another round of crazy boyfriend. Danny ruined men for me forever."

Eris wasn't buying it, "Please sis, you just got all starry eyed and blushed telling me about him flirting with you." 

"That was embarrassment -- and I was holding back tears of frustration! I'm Irish on both sides. That means I have zero pigment in my skin. My whole face flushes at the drop of a hat."

"Were you blushing in church?" Ris teased. 

Mina grabbed what was left of the marshmallows and threw the bag at her for that. "Shut up!"

___

Mina counted the full moon as a blessing when she woke up with a full bladder in the middle of the night. Dressed only in a thin camisole and pj's, she crawled out of her sleeping bag and grabbed her flashlight and a roll of toilet paper from her pack. She considered grabbing a jacket as it had gotten chilly, but decided against it for such a short trip. Heading out of the tent she wandered a comfortable distance away from the camp to pee behind one of the many bushes in the area.

As she headed back to the tent, she found her path blocked by the same red eyes as before. Now it was closer she could tell it was definitely a cougar, and an angry one by the sound of the growls. It crouched as though it was ready to spring, a behavior she recognized from her own cat. 

Mina panicked and threw both the flashlight and the roll of tissue. She had no idea if anything actually hit the beast as she took off running into the trees, stopping only to pick up a rock and throw that too. 

Her blind sprint came to a halt as the big cat tackled her from behind tearing into her shoulder and side with its claws. She hit the ground screaming. She could feel the cougar's hot breath on her neck, and suddenly the animal was ripped off her by something much larger. 

The sounds of the struggling creatures were horrifying to Mina. She hardly dared to look behind her, instead focusing her energy on crawling as close to camp as she could. Only finding camp in the dark after all that was a little confusing. She didn't make it far in any case before there was a loud squeltching crunch and then silence.

Mina instinctively froze. She slowly turned her head to look behind her to see a monstrous black wolf in the moonlight staring right back at her. It was bigger than any bear she had ever seen, and she had managed to get pretty close to Cheeseburger at the FANG Center. It began to walk towards her, and she scrambled backwards unable to take her eyes off the unnatural looking beast. 

It cleared the distance between them with it's huge strides until it was standing over her. It placed a paw in the center of her chest pinning her in place. This put pressure on her wounds and she cried out in pain. The huge foot jerked back and the wolf whined before snuffling all over her chest. The muzzle of the beast still wet with blood, worked it's way up until reaching her slashed up shoulder and making a dissatisfied grumbling sound.

It whined again and lay down. Mina was now trapped with her legs under the massive chest and had a fluffy black leg to either side of her. The giant wet nose nuzzled at her neck and Mina tried to be very still and not breathe. Then without warning she felt one of the paws curl around her back and pull her closer to the creature's chest.

She let out the breath she was holding along with an undignified squeak. It responded with a satisfied huff and began to lick her shoulder as if she was an injured cub. At least that was the only parallel that came to Mina's mind at the moment. 

She tried to pull away from the painful sensation and was immediately rewarded with a second leg curling around her back to prevent her escape. This unfortunately sent pain all along her damaged side.

"Aagh! That hurts you fuzzy bastard! Let go!"

The beast immediately removed it's leg, and began searching for the puncture marks snuffling and puffing as before. Mina was beginning to think he was genuinely trying to help as it made what she could only imagine was an exasperated sigh while surveying the damage. 

The wolf grumbled again and laid its massive head in her lap. She decided to try something.

"I hope you're as nice as I think you are boy." He whined softly looking up to meet her eyes and thumped his tail on the ground a few times. She couldn't help but notice how blue his eyes were in the moonlight.

She cautiously placed one of her hands on the beast rubbing behind one of his ears. He groaned and scooted closer to her belly. Emboldened she began to stroke his feathery soft mane with her other hand. His head darted up and he kissed her full in the face with his slobbery tongue.

She fell backwards giggling as the monster in front of her began to act more like a giant forest puppy than a monster, licking at her face and wagging his huge puffy tail.

"You're a good hellbeast aren't you? Yes you are!"

He panted, licked her once more, and settled back down across her like a huge lap cat. He buried the end of his snout in her hair and breathed deeply. It was clear this fluffy weirdo wasn't letting her up, but at least she felt certain she wasn't about to die. 

She gave him head scritches as she stared up at the stars wondering how all this happened. He seemed to relax into her good shoulder as she continued absentmindedly petting him.

The quiet of the night was broken by the sound of strange howls in the distance. Her new friend joined the chorus with a deep booming howl of his own. She could feel the vibrations in her chest, and she was amazed when the creatures in the distance answered his song and he got up. 

Looking off into the direction of his pack he whined and looked back as he trotted a small ways away. She watched as he silently debated leaving her.

"Go on, I gotta get back too." 

The other howls rang out, closer this time, and that seemed to make up his mind as he huffed and melted into the blackness.

She sighed and quietly exclaimed, "Fuck!" to herself before weakly heading back to camp, because what else could she say?

___

Eris freaked out when Mina woke her to say she'd been attacked by a cougar. She outright called her crazy when she got to the ginormous wolf story. But Mina had the long black fur all over her clothes to back her up. Ris insisted that they pack everything up and call Adelaide to pick them up. Several of the cuts across her shoulder and back were deep and would probably need stitches.

Mina agreed owing to the pain and blood loss, but swore Eris to secrecy about the wolf bit. If anyone asked the cougar was killed by a regular bear. She didn't want any fish and game people alerting hunters that there was a wolf that size running around. She'd seen the way people gathered at the Spread Eagle to boast of their exploits, and couldn't stand the thought of one of them shooting her rescuer for sport.

___

The following day found Mina cooped up at home resting. The position of her injuries made her quickly give up on t-shirts. She opted instead for a cross backed sports top that wouldn't rub her shoulder and cut off shortly under her boobs and more importantly above the claw marks in her side. She had everything she needed for her personal pity party in the living room. Hurk and Sharky had stopped by with pizza and three flavors of chicken wings the night before. While Eris had set her up with every pillow she could find along with an impressive collection of monster movies.

She had just settled in for a BBQ chicken fueled Aliens marathon when there was a knock on the door. She looked down at her snack and decided to set it on the kitchen counter where the cat wouldn't get it. Emma mewed innocently at the door. Mina wasn't fooled by the act but followed the grey puffball to see who it was.

When she opened the door John Seed was standing there with a bouquet of flowers, and a concerned look on his face. She noticed his eyes going to her side and sliding up her body to her shoulder.

"Hi how -" he was interrupted by a long loud meow and looked down to see Emma. 

"Sorry she just wants love." Mina laughed as John knelt down to pet the delighted cat who began purring.

"I just heard what happened and, thought I would come see how you're doing." The charming lawyer beamed up at her as her cat reared up and smelled the flowers he had brought. He let her sniff the bright pink and yellow blossoms.

"Well I was doing better before I knew all of Hope County heard how much of a moron I am, but I guess word travels faster when the story is good." She said inwardly dying at the thought of gossips spreading her tale of being attacked whilst peeing in the woods. She had told Adelaide Drubman when she'd come to rescue her. Adds had told Sharky who told Hurk, and now it had somehow reached John Seed. She was doomed.

John chuckled and gave her one of his signature smirks. "Maybe these will cheer you up." The sight of him offering her flowers on his knees made her stomach do a little flip, and she could feel her face flushing again.

"So we've graduated from staring to flowers?" she teased.

"Looks that way doesn't it?" he said sounding pleased, "Do you like them?" 

"They're beautiful, thank you. Though I am going to have to go out to the shop to get a good vase for them." 

"Oh, I can get you a vase if you need one." John offered.

"No please, I have way too many! I meant I have to go around back to get one from my workshop. I actually make them as a sort of hobby turned job."

"Really?"she could tell John was interested, and if it meant steering the conversation away from last night... Well she wouldn't complain too much.

"Come on I'll show you. It's just through here." She said grabbing a set of keys from a dish just inside the door and heading around the side of the house. They went through the small gate that led to the backyard.

"How did you get into making vases?" He asked watching her step carefully along a path of stepping stones in her bare feet.

"Well I don't just make vases. I make all sorts of things figurines, jewelery, cups, abstract sculptures…" The path ended at a large blue and white outbuilding with a locked metal sliding door. Mina stopped and fiddled with the lock before sliding the door open to reveal her workshop. "Here we are." 

The front of the large space was dedicated to rows of shelves, each varying in contents with seemingly little order. Some held tools and supplies, while others held a strange assortment of finished pieces, the majority of which were made of brilliantly colored glass. John was speechless for a moment as he walked around admiring her work.

"As for how I got started," she continued following him into the building, "I grew up in a family of artists and craftsmen. Fire and power tools were always just around. My dad's into metalworking and my mom prefers wood and ceramics. I got comfortable doing a little bit of everything, but eventually fell in love with glassworks."

"These are really impressive. Do you sell them?" He asked delicately picking up a blue sculpture of a pair of wolves playing with their small glass cubs. 

"Yeah, my business is mostly online now. I used to have a store and a much nicer shop before I moved here with Eris." She had moved away down the next isle by the time she finished speaking. He reluctantly put the little family back where he had found it to see where she was headed.

"Hmm, so if it was so great, why leave?" 

"It's a long complicated story." She shook her head thinking about Danny, and changed the subject. "Can you hand me that one?" She pointed to a dark vase with swirls of pink sitting on the top shelf. 

He reached up and brought it down for her, but John was never one to be shaken off a topic of intrigue. "I always have time for long complicated stories." He smirked knowingly. "In fact as the confessor of our church, it's my job."

Mina cocked an eyebrow at John's audacity. She had been blamed by way too many people for the mess her ex left in her life, "I don't need to confess, because I didn't do anything wrong." 

___

He had clearly touched a nerve, but the emphasis she put on the word I told him someone had stepped out of line. Later he intended to find out who.

___

"I wasn't implying you need to confess, merely that I'm available to listen." His deep, silken voice was disarming, and the hand he placed reassuringly on her good shoulder sent a warm shiver down her spine. 

God, now she remembered why she thought this guy could be Satan in disguise! Those fuckboy rumors were making a lot of sense right about now. She couldn't even think straight looking into those beautiful blue eyes. 

"I guess I ought to get these into some water already." She desperately said to snap herself out of this dangerous train of thought. 

___

John silently cursed when she pulled away. He had been just as lost in her eyes and the feeling of her warm skin beneath his hand left his heart racing. His prying had soured the mood when everything had been going so well. 

Perhaps he had gotten greedy. John tried so hard to overcome his sin, to give when he felt like taking. It was just so tantalizing all the things he didn't know about the woman in front of him, but he was strong. He could do better. He could put her firmly before himself.

"Yes, and I suppose you need to be getting back inside yourself. You need rest after that terrifying wolf encounter." He said as they meandered out the exit towards the house.

"Wolf? I was attacked by a mountain lion, and there was a bear, sort of later." Mina quickly corrected him stopping to lock up before they left.

"You were sort of attacked by a bear?" John asked a little too intrigued for Mina's taste.

"No - ugh, the bear killed the, the cougar." She said trying to cover her lie. "It left though. It didn't really bother me or anything."

John of course wasn't buying her new story. He was however highly amused by her obvious discomfort with lying. Despite the harmless nature of her lie he couldn't help but press.

"You don't sound very sure about that." He said smirking at the small woman.

"Quit trying to confuse me. Aren't you supposed to be using your lawyer powers for God now instead of twisting people's words around on them?" 

I'm sorry! It's a force of habit. Plus you turn such a lovely shade of pink when you're flustered, I just can't help myself."


End file.
